It should be an interesting game tonight in Colorado. The Thrashers sit three points out of the playoffs last night and the Avs are locked in a battle for the Northwest Division title. Colorado has won three of their last four games, all by three or more goals, and they’ve piled up 16 goals in that span. The attention this season has been on super-rookies Matt Duchene and Ryan O’Reilly but Chris Stewart (22) and TJ Galiardi with 39 and 25 points respectively are both ahead of O’Reilly in team scoring. Then there’s Brandon Yip (24) who has 11 goals in 22 games and five in his last four games. Throw in Paul Stastny (24) and Wojtek Wolski (23) and they have avery young, very talented team.
Basically, the Avalanche now are what the Thrashers would like to be in a year or two as top young player play major roles with some veterans mixed in.
Johan Hedberg will get the nod in goal for the Thrashers tonight, who are 4-2-0 all-time in Colorado. Hedberg will be looking for his first career win against the Avalanche after going 0-4-0 up to this point versus Colorado with a 5.00 GAA and .823 save percentage. Slava Kozlov will be a healthy scratch for the sixth time in eight games. With only six healthy defensemen on the roster there won’t be a scratch on the blueline.
By the way, the Thrashers now have two available roster spots should they want to pick up some help before Friday’s Olympic roster freeze.
Expect to see more of Johnny Oduya and Niclas Bergfors tonight now that they’ve had a few days to practice with the team. Oduya is going to be getting a lot of PK time while Bergfors is poised to earn some PP time (as is Evander Kane) if all goes well. If you haven’t seen them yet make sure you check out the atlantathrashers.com features on Bergfors and Oduya (this one is particularly good).
Tonight’s game will be on SportSouth at 9 pm. Feel free to join the liveblog.
Enstrom just cost his team the game. He was reaching for the puck instead of skating and playing the puck and/or body during the third period. He made a TERRIBLE play on the boards that gave Colorado a great scoring chance. Soon thereafter Colorado made it 3-2. Momentum swung. Great job Toby.
Then in overtime the Colorado player skates toward his side and Enstrom reaches for the puck with his stick instead of playing the body. Game winning goal Colorado.
Enstrom is the WORST defenseman on the roster. What else can he do besides QB a PP, pass the puck well, and keep it in the zone. His defensive skills in his own zone are awful.
When Schubert comes back to the lineup, Toby needs to take a seat next to Slava in the press box.
BENCH ENSTROM!
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great finish from the first line and a good overall game… until the third. momentum was stolen and we repeatedly couldnt breakout of our zone successfully.
the goal in OT was much more bogos fault than enstroms. cumiskey was bogos man from the start of the play and he let him skate right around him. no doubt hes hitting a sophomore slump and could really use the time off from the olympics to rest a bit.
really happy how bergfors, antropov, and little are meshing, it seems to be working better than with kovy in there.
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AAAARGGGG!
Yea, seriously bitter pill.
Played a great game up to about what? midway 3rd? then?????
Don’t even want to talk about that overtime tally!
They all looked like ticket holders.(spectators)
We’ve got to learn to play w/ a lead, maintain focus, and mental toughness.
Picked up a point….. on to Minny.
GO THRASHERS!!!!!
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Toby leads the team’s D-men in +/- and in points, at +7 and 41 points. That makes him 2nd in scoring on the team and the Thrash’s best defenseman. Toby was one of only 3 Thrashers who were in + numbers all last season. Defense is a very strong part of his game.
Contrast that with Bogosian, who was the D-man who should have picked up the Av coming in on his side of the ice…Bogo has the worst +/- of all Thrashers’ D-man at -12, and is 3rd worst on the team. has been there all season, too as he continues to struggle defensively this year. Bogosian was the weak link on that last play.
So why was he even out there instead of Kubina???
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MPK, are you serious or do you just like exaggerating? toby didn’t have a very good game, but he is by no means our worst defenseman, nor did he cost us the game tonight. most of the team stopped forechecking and backchecking, and spent most of the third period hanging out in our own zone. i’m pretty sure it wasn’t just toby enstrom.
and as for your comment about overtime, you are definitely mixing him up with our SUPER SOPHOMORE SENSATION zach bogosian – otherwise (and i refuse to believe anyone is this oblivious) you somehow failed to notice z getting completely skated around in overtime as if he was some little 9-year-old girl that had never put skates on before. he basically froze in place.. why john anderson chose to put him out there to start overtime is beyond me. geo you’re a genius and you said it all, he needs time to chill out a little bit. i think it should start before the olympic break though.. but it seems like just because he’s a first round pick, he’s untouchable in JA’s eyes and can’t ever be benched. i can’t even count the number of times ron hainsey’s had to bail him out of some god awful plays.
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sam you said it much better than i did
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The game overall was great until we stopped the back checking in the Mid-3rd. I love to see the BAL line getting great chemistry and i really hope little gets on fire… is it just me or does it seem like he is getting back to his last years status a bit? Im really happy to see Bergfors producing for us… While Kovy does nothing for the Devils.. hope he can stay on his scoring ways.. im really liking the teams new look, but you guys are def. right about Bogo he needs to bench out for a while…. maybe give somebody else a chance to play 3rd line D with Popovic.
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Nice effort last night but a rough finish
Changing the subject
Who will be Unrestricted Free Agent at end of the year if we do not sign them by July 1st
I believe it is
Hedberg
Kubina
Armstrong
Max A
Slater
Boulton
Kozlov
Popovic
am I missing anyone or do I have any errors
Thanks
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I am pretty sure Schubert is UFA end of year off the top of my head.
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@chief of smoke, Rabnnod
You guys are correct – Thrashers have 9 UFAs on the NHL roster:
http://www.capgeek.com/charts.php?Team=7
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